Maladera flavipennis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, 2021

Fabrizi, Silvia, Liu, Wan-Gang, Bai, Ming, Yang, Xing-Ke & Ahrens, Dirk, 2021, A monograph of the genus Maladera Mulsant & Rey, 1871 of China (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae: Sericini), Zootaxa 4922 (1), pp. 1-400 : 227-229

Maladera flavipennis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , sp. n.

Figures 52 E–H, 116

Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ “CH-Guizhou NE 27.V.-3.VI. 20 km NW of Jiankou 1995 Fanjing Shan-Kuaichang E. Jendek & O. Šauša leg/ Coll. P. Pacholatko / CS23/ 562 Sericini Asia spec.” ( CP) . Paratypes: 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀ “CH-Guizhou 21.-26.V. 50 km N of Kaili 1995 Shibing-Yuntai Shan E. Jendek & O. Šauša leg/ Coll. P. Pacholatko” ( CP, ZFMK) .

Description. Length: 10.2 mm, length of elytra: 7.3 mm, width: 6.2 mm. Body oval, head, legs and ventral surface black, pronotum, elytra and antenna yellowish brown, dorsal shiny, dorsal surface glabrous.

Labroclypeus wide and trapezoidal, much wider than long, widest at base, lateral margins straight and strongly convergent anteriorly, anterior angles moderately rounded, anterior margin weakly emarginate medially, margins moderately reflexed, lateral margins produce an indistinct angle with the ocular canthus; surface strongly convex, coarsely and very densely punctate, glabrous, with a row of fine erect seta behind the anterior margin; frontoclypeal suture indistinctly incised, not elevated and bluntly angled medially; smooth area anterior to eye moderately wide, almost flat, twice as wide as long; ocular canthus short and wide (1/4 of ocular diameter), finely densely punctate, with a single and short terminal seta. Frons with dense, irregularly scattered coarse punctures, partly fusing with each other, with a single short seta beside the middle of each eye. Eyes very small, ratio diameter/ interocular width: 0.4. Antenna with ten or nine antennomeres (with tendency of symphysocerie; Krell 1992), club with three antennomeres and straight, distinctly shorter than the remaining antennomeres combined. Mentum elevated and slightly flattened anteriorly. Labrum slightly produced medially, transverse, with deep median emargination.

Pronotum subtrapezoidal, widest at base, lateral margins in basal two thirds straight and strongly convergent, in anterior third weakly convex and convergent, anterior angles distinctly produced and acute, posterior angles blunt, only weakly rounded at the tip; anterior margin weakly convex produced medially, with a very fine and complete marginal line, base of pronotum without marginal line; surface very densely and coarsely punctate, punctures partly fusing with each other, glabrous; anterior and lateral margins glabrous; hypomeron carinate and slightly produced ventrally. Scutellum yellow, wide triangular, at apex sharp, with coarse and very dense punctures, along the middle with a smooth impunctate and slightly elevated carina, glabrous.

Elytra widest in posterior third, striae distinctly impressed, finely and moderately densely punctate, intervals moderately convex, with fine and dense punctures concentrated along the striae, except a few single and short setae on lateral intervals glabrous; epipleural margin fine, ending at strongly curved external apical angle of elytra; epipleura sparsely shortly setose, apical border with a fine fringe of microtrichomes (100x).

Ventral surface dull, coarsely and densely punctate, metasternum sparsely covered with fine, short or very minute setae, metacoxa glabrous; abdominal sternites except the ultimate one shiny, finely and densely punctuate, with a transverse row of short setae. Mesosternum between mesocoxae half as wide as the slender mesofemur. Ratio of length of metepisternum/ metacoxa: 1/ 1.24. Pygidium moderately convex and dull, coarsely and densely punctate, without smooth midline, with a few longer setae on the apical part.

Legs slender and moderately long; femur with two longitudinal row of setae, finely and sparsely punctate; metafemur shiny, behind the posterior longitudinal row of setae punctures finer and more dense, anterior margin acute, without serrated line behind anterior margin, posterior margin completely finely serrate ventrally, not widened apically, posterior margin finely serrate dorsally, glabrous. Metatibia slender and not flattened, moderately long, widest at apex, ratio of width/ length: 1/ 4.2, moderately carinate dorsally, with a single group of spines at three quarters of metatibial length, the basal one is reduced to a single short spine shortly before the middle of metatibia, basally with just one other short single spine at basal third of metatibia; lateral face longitudinally convex, coarsely and densely punctate, with minute setae in the punctures; ventral margin finely serrated, with three robust equidistant setae; medial face coarsely and densely punctate, glabrous, apex finely serrated, interiorly near tarsal articulation weakly concavely trunctate. Tarsomeres dorsally very sparsely finely punctate, neither laterally nor dorsally carinate, ventrally finely sparsely setose; metatarsomeres ventrally with a strongly serrated ridge, first metatarsomere slightly shorter than the two following tarsomeres combined and a quarter of its length longer than dorsal tibial spur. Protibia moderately long, bidentate; anterior claws symmetrical, basal tooth of both claws bluntly truncate at apex.

Aedeagus: Fig. 52 E–G. Habitus: Fig. 52H .

Diagnosis. Maladera flavipennis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu , sp. n. differs from the other species of the M. brunnescens group in being yellow dorsally and blackish ventrally (compared to the reddish brown color of the other species), as well as having short, simple parameres lacking lateral lobes or teeth, and having a pair of apical lateral processes on the phallobase.

Etymology. The species name (noun in nominative singular) is derived from the combined Latin words flavus- (yellow) and pennes (wings).

Variation. Length: 9.5–10.2 mm, length of elytra: 7.0– 7.3 mm, width: 5.2–6.2 mm. Female: eyes as large as in male; antennal club with three antennomeres, little shorter than remaining antennomeres combined; pygidium weakly convex and shiny.

Distribution. See map ( Fig. 116 ) and Table 1.

Figures

FIGURE 52. A–D: Maladera filigraniforceps Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype); E–H: M. flavipennis Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype); I–L: M. liwenzhui Ahrens, Fabrizi & Liu, sp. n. (holotype). A, E, I: aedeagus, left side lateral view; C, G, K: aedeagus, right side lateral view; B, F, J: parameres, dorsal view; D, H, L: habitus. Scale: 0.5 mm. Habitus not to scale.

FIGURE 116. Distribution of the Maladera brunnescens group: Maladera brunnescens (Frey, 1972), M. filigraniforceps sp. n., M. flavipennis sp. n., M. parabrunnescens sp. n..